Tropical House began by designing Planted Greenhouses. Incorporating Nectar and Food Plants for Butterflies was a natural step forward. Andrew owned and ran Tropical Rainforest World in West Lothian for 5 years from 1997 - 2002 and has been involved in the design and planning of Planted Butterfly Houses ever since. Andrew is involved in a project in the North East of England, at the planning stage, which will potentially see the largest rainforest exhibit ever created in the UK, rivalling The Eden Project in scale and budget.
Designing and building a spectacular Jungle based attraction is best done in stages. It is sometimes easy to look at a finished project and forget the amount of work required by all parties concerned in order to produce the look and feel of an authentic rainforest. Again we have an advantage. Tropical House owns a place in Central America right in the rainforest and so our people find it easy to

know how the end product should be, how it should smell, how you should feel when you are there.Step 1. We start with the glasshouse itself. What is the area available for the structure to be constructed on. We can either build this from scratch or order a commercially produced building. Our team will erect the structure and we have glass experts within our permanent team if required. There are also many plastic based double and triple walled sheet materials which are lighter and more heat retentive. Step 2. We will then fit the life support equipment. Undersoil, hot water heating is the most effective technique for growing plants, we acheive a lush jungle very quickly using this technique. We also fit automatic watering systems either within existing structures or onto new framework. We can have very realistic rain storms throughout the day and build palm leaf shelters for the visitors to hide from the periodical tropical downpour. Step 3 The Landscaping is next. If you have a large greenhouse, even a polytunnel (St Albans Butterfly World houses its Butterfly display in a polytunnel very successfully) on your site we can create paths, design and install borders and plant fantastic Rainforest Plants that we have personally collected from the rain forest. For a completely realistic jungle look, feel and smell we are the best qualified, best able to recreate this for you. Check out our theming and rockwork page for some examples of the rockwork we can do, waterfalls, caves, overhangs, anything that is possible for you to think of, we can reproduce. Even in an existing Tropical House we can transform the paths and the features that are there into something very special. Have a look at our Zoo page, or our Land Based Colleges page, for examples of the animal enclosures we build.

We love building waterfalls............

We have a large stock of tropical plants which we have grown from specimens collected deep in the South American jungle. We have vines and specimen plants that are absolutely unique, possibly the only ones in the UK. We also have a tropical house on site at our Head Office which is fully set up and established. The stock we supply is grown here, not in pots and containers, but in soil and with unlimited space. That way our tropical plants are stronger and healthier than other sources of supply.
We also understand Butterflies. How to keep them healthy and how to maximise breeding and hence

minimise the necessity of expensive weekly purchases of pupae. In fact we offer visits to established Butterfly Gardens to advise on management practices and techniques. The plants we use are tailored to species requirements. Heavy on nectar plants and focussing on the marriage between appropriate food plants and species that eat them. My guarantee is to set up a facility that allows self sufficiency of pupae production within 12 months of commissioning the display.

Check out these other great services that Tropical House can offer to you, Leaf Cutting Ants, Theming etc etc